Butterflies at Stocker’s Lake 2024
Cliff Buckton Oct 15 2024
The recording scheme
Weekly counts of butterflies seen in 12 sectors around the lake continued in 2024 with results entered into the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. This year’s team consisted of Carole Holton, Simon Jones, Barbara James, Brian & Lynne Pike and Cliff & Jacky Buckton.
Total butterflies counted by year
As widely reported in the media, 2024 has been a disastrous year for insect numbers and butterflies are no exception. While weather during the year as a whole has been unexceptional, rainfall in Spring was very high resulting in flooded paths around the lake for several months. September rainfall was also well above average. This and other factors have presumably contributed to the total butterflies counted of just 401 being the lowest since the equally disastrous 2012. Note that 2020 was an incomplete survey year due to Covid. For further information please view or download our full FoSL Butterflies report 2024.